Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, a 57-year-old former air force fighter pilot, has been dubbed the "hero of Hudson" after calmly bringing his 155 passengers to safety in a powerless aircraft.

US Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger. Photograph: Reuters
Reuters

Sullenberger, from Danville, California, is a 29-year veteran of US Airways with 40 years' aviation experience and about 20,000 flight hours in jets, propeller planes and gliders.

He flew F-4 jets in the US air force before beginning his civilian career, and now gives speeches on aviation safety. Among his interests are studying the psychology of how teams cope in an emergency, media reports said today.

Sullenberger's wife told CNN that she was stunned to hear the news from her husband after it was all over.

"I hadn't been watching the news. I've heard Sully say to people, 'It's rare for an airline pilot to have an incident in their career,' " said Lori Sullenberger of Danville, California.

"When he called me he said, 'There's been an accident.' At first I thought it was something minor, but then he told me the circumstances and my body started shaking and I rushed to get our daughters out of school."

John and Jane Garcia, neighbours of Sullenberger, were not surprised by the pilot's nonchalance.

"Sure, he's a hero, but he's also a humble man," said Walberg. "'Hero' isn't a name he'll take to very easily."

One of the first rescuers on the scene said Sullenberger seemed impervious to the chaos around him.

"He looked absolutely immaculate," the rescuer said. "He looked like David Niven in an airplane uniform. He looked unruffled. His uniform was sharp. You could see him walking down the aisles making sure everybody got out."

Sullengerger is the CEO of an aviation safety firm, Safety Reliability Methods, Inc. His online CV says he started his flying career serving seven years in the US air force in Europe, the Pacific and at Nellis air force base in Nevada. While there, he was a mission commander in aerial war games known as red flag exercises.

He no doubt used that experience when, three minutes after taking off from LaGuardia airport, in New York, his Airbus A320 hit a flock of geese and lost power in both engines.

According to controllers, there was an "eerie calm" about the controller and cockpit communications as options dwindled. Return to LaGuardia? Too far. Land at the small Teterboro airport across the river in New Jersey? The plane wouldn't make that either. An audacious river landing was the only option, an official of the controllers' union told Reuters.

"That was pretty much it," said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "It was very clear to our controllers that he was going to make an attempt at the Hudson."

Sullenberger told passengers via intercom: "Brace yourself for a hard impact." Then he calmly put the aircraft down on the Hudson river. He was the last to leave the plane, walking the aisle twice to ensure nobody was left behind, according to the New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

Sullenberger is a graduate of the USAF academy, Purdue University and the University of Northern Colorado. He was a speaker on two panels at the High Reliability Organisations (HRO) international conference in Deauville, France, in 2007 and has just been named a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

He served as an instructor and Airline Pilots Association safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member, local media said. He has participated in several USAF and National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations.

His safety work led to the development of a Federal Aviation Administration advisory circular. Working with Nasa scientists, he co-authored a paper on error-inducing contexts in aviation. He was instrumental in the development and implementation of the crew resource management course used at his airline and has taught the course to hundreds of colleagues.

"He did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river" and evacuating the passengers, Bloomberg said of Sullenberger.

"It was intense, it was intense," said passenger Jeff Kolodjay. "You've got to give it to the pilot. He made a hell of a landing."

It appeared to be the first time in 45 years that a major aircraft crash-landed in water – and every passenger on board made it out alive.